TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCAST BY FULTON LEWIS, JR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP63T00245R000100220102-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 19, 2004
• Sequence Number: 102
• Publication Date: March 10, 1958
• Content Type: TRANS

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TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCAST
By
Fulton Lewis, Jr.,
Station WGMS at 7-7:15 P.M.
10 March 1958
Over the week end, ladies and gentlemen, there has been
a rather interesting and important new twist in the story on
Radio Free Europe and from an unexpected source. You are, I
am sure, familiar with Mr. William F. Buckley Jr., the dis-
tinguished young man who collaborated with Mr. Brent Bozelle
in the book "McCarthy and His Enemies." Mr. Buckley also
wrote "God and Man at Yale," and he presently is editor and
publisher of the excellent weekly National Review, to which
you should be a subscriber if you're none already.
Mr. Buckley has been following this series of broadcasts
about Radio Free Europe and the Crusade for Freedom, and I
have discussed the subject with him on several occasions. And,
as a leading anti-Communist, he finds himself considerably con-
cerned because he thinks, as I,do, that there is a very im-
portant place for an operation which is dedicated to the an-
nounced purposes that Radio Free Europe purports to have. Mr.
Buckley feels that it would be unfortunate if Radio Free Europe
were to be allowed to go down the drain because of incompetent
management that is so bureaucratic and stubborn as to refuse
to clean its own house. With this I agree and I hoped through
this series that the exposure of the facts about the Free Eu-
rope operation would stir those who are responsible for it in-
to some realistic self-examination in the nature of a clean-up
and a reform--I still am hopeful to this end--to establish the
project on a sound track of reality and really sending the mes-
sage of truth and hope behind the iron curtain.
Mr. Buckley has come up with a proposal that he use his
good offices and those of National Review to set up an informal
committee or commission composed of three or five or perhaps
seven members who are recognized students of Communism, studious
men of unchallengeable integrity, to do a studious review of the
operations of Radio Free Europe to date in the light of what I
have reported over this microphone and in my newspaper columns
with a view to coming up with an evaluation of the whole opera-
tion and the reports I have made about it and what should be
done about it. His idea is to exact an advance understanding
from me, on the one hand, and from Radio Free Europe, on the
other hand, to accept the evaluations of this informal commis-
sion in good faith and to carry them out in good faith insofar
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as the carrying out is humanly possible. He provides a list
of distinguished students of the Communist conspiracy from which
these commission members might be drawn and the list includes:
James Burnham, Sidney Hook, Will Hurburg, Eugene Lyons, Charles
Lowry, Thomas Murray, Max Eastman, Ralph de Toledano, William
Henry Chamberlain, Christopher Emmet, Judge Robert Morris,
Francis McNamarra, and a string of others. These are all em-
minent citizens in whom I have great confidence, although I
have no way of knowing whether they would be acceptable as a
commission to Radio Free Europe although they should be be-
cause Free Europe is supposed to be dedicated to the fight
against Communism, which certainly is my principal motivation
in the reporting that I have done.
My complaint is that the Radio Free Europe operation and
methods are not effective and indeed in some particulars are
probably doing more harm than good. I am gratified by this
suggestion by Mr. Buckley because it demonstrates that the tre-
mendous effort that I and my staff have put into this Free Eu-
rope study over the past eight months has not been in vain and
in fact is bearing very positive fruit. Here in itself is posi-
tive fruit--the interest displayed in this connection. And I
understand that Mr. Buckley has already obtained acceptances
from a sizable number of the individuals he has listed. I in-
formed that my entire very voluminous files and all of my docu-
mentation on the Radio Free Europe operation are available to
his commission, subject only to the provision that I must of
course protect the anonymity of a few sources of information
whom I have promised to protect. But these in no case are key
figures, nor is there key evidence, and aside from these, his
commission is welcome to the works.
Whether Free Europe will agree to any such commitment, I
have no way of knowing, but I shall be interested to find out.
The considerations which motivate me are several and quite di-
.ect. In the first place, the Free Europe operation is a semi-
public agency ands as such,, should be investigated by an offi-
cial agency of government.--I have in mind a congressional com-
.mi.tteem-rather than any unofficial commission. The unofficial
commission would not have the powers of subpoena--which are
essential if all of the facts in the Free Europe story are to
be brought to light, as they should be. Such a commission
would only be able to have access to my own files, to which
they are welcome as I say, and to the files of Free Europe to
such an extent as the Free Europe Committee is willing to make
them available. And I have found from experience that such
availability is highly selective. When you come to important
and significant material, the probabilities are that you are
informed by Free Europe that this is classified and thus not
available.
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The commission, for example, would have no way of getting
access to the medical records of the Army Medical Corps in the
Fletcher Bartholomew case. They would have to depend on the
records and files of the Free Europe Committee, and the whole
point of the Bartholomew case is, I contend, that these re-
ports and files of theirs are self-serving on the part of the
very people who are responsible for the Bartholomew case--thus
are not reliable. Another very important consideration is that
witnesses who would appear before such a commission are not
under subpoena and not even under any substantive oath. This
means that they would have no immunity from prosecution. As
a result of their testimony, many of the individuals within
the Free Europe organization whom I know personally and have
important evidence to give, including suspicions of actual
espionage on the part of their superiors, would never be will-
ing to testify informally. Before a Congressional Committee
under subpoena, yes, a thousand times over. They are aching
to tell their stories, but they dare not do so except under
protection because some persons suspected of feeding informa-
tion to me already have been fired from their Free Europe jobs.
There is one additional point, which is perhaps the most
important of all, and that is that I have no intention of being
placed in the position of being engaged in some sort of a de-
bate, or feud, or war, with Radio Free Europe or the Crusade
for Freedom or any of the affiliated operations. I've done a
straightforward reportorial job, under rather difficult cir-
cumstances I might add, and that job stands on its own feet.
If there are errors in the things that I have reported to you
and if they are brought to my attention either by the Free Eu-
rope Committee or by anybody else, it's my duty to correct them
fully and completely so as not to misinform you. I have made
two, which I shall correct probably tomorrow night for the sake
of the record. One was a rhetorical slip; the other was a mat-
ter of semantics, an interpretation which can be straightened
out with a simple statement of what the facts are. Aside from
these, I'm unaware of any errors in the reportorial job that I
have done, and certainly none has been demonstrated to me, by
anyone.
What seems to be in order at the present time, and this is
up to you out over the country, is for these facts to be investi-
gated by the appropriate committee of the Congress of the United
States, properly constituted and properly vested with the neces-
sary authority to get all the facts. And that committee is the
Internal Security Committee of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
commonly called the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. The
chairman is Senator James Eastland of Mississippi. The chief
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council of it is Mr. Jay Sourwine, who succeeded Judge Robert
Morris when the latter resigned back in January to run for the
United States Senate in New Jersey. What is needed now is for
you,the public--if you consider this Radio Free Europe story
to be of sufficient importance to be followed up with action--
to make your demands known to the committee and insist that
they give the matter their attention. This is their job, they
have the authority to go into such questions as these, and
there are some courageous and very able senators on that com-
mittee--Jenner of Indiana, Roman Hruska of Nebraska, John Mar-
shall Butler of Maryland, John McClellan of Arkansas and others.
This is the only form of pressure that can force the clean-up
that's necessary in the Free Europe Committee operation, and
this is the spot where the investigation should be made.
As is obvious from the proposals of Mr. Bill Buckley, the
head of pressure of public opinion has been sufficiently estab-
lished to have effective results. The next move is for you--
if you feel that there should be a congressional investigation,
to force that investigation, as you have done on many occasions
in the past and it merely requires sufficient public demand,
and the investigation, we'll have--public demand in the form
of letters, telegrams, and postcards. The name of the commit-
tee once again is the Senate Internal Subcommittee, the chair-
man is Senator John Eastman of Mississippi, Senator James
Eastman of Mississippi, I beg your pardon. The council is
Mr. Jay Sourwine, Senator James Eastland of Mississippi.
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